UNICEF and the Global Goals

UNICEF is committed to doing all it can to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in partnership with governments, civil society, business, academia and the United Nations family – and especially children and young people.

Estimation of Rates of Return of Social Protection Instruments in Cambodia: A Case for Non-Contributory Social Transfers

This study provides empirical evidence for the implementation of Cambodia’s “National Social Protection Strategy for the Poor and Vulnerable,” making the case for a basic package of non-contributory social protection provisions targeted at poor persons in rural areas covering various life-cycle risks. The instruments include cash transfers for children, social pensions, scholarships for lower secondary education, and public works programmes. A microsimulation model is designed using data from the Cambodian Socio Economic Survey 2004 and 2009. The model estimates the potential effects, benefits and returns of the implementation of social protection in Cambodia. The study shows that social protection investments may promote equitable economic growth in Cambodia, by enhancing human development and helping to solve human capital constraints, but also fostering economic development at the household level. It also shows that the effects, benefits and returns of social protection can be higher if it is implemented together with complementary policies such as improving health and education coverage and quality, enhancing sanitation conditions and infrastructure, fostering economic productivity and the formal labour market, and promoting industrialization, innovation and technical change.